A word, please, your honor

Published 1:00 am, Friday, August 7, 2009

Motorist Gerard Maney has every right to want to pay his debt to society for drinking and driving, and move on. For Albany Family Court Judge Gerard Maney, though, it is not that simple.

Judge Maney owes the community an explanation if he wants to continue sitting in judgment of its citizens. If he is unwilling to provide one, he should step down.

An impaired driving conviction for a judge is bad enough, but the events surrounding Judge Maney's arrest on June 18 raise more questions than whether the jurist had one too many. Those who come to Judge Maney's court now could hardly be blamed for wondering how much he respects the law he imposes.

As police tell it, the judge was headed toward a DWI checkpoint on the Green Island Bridge when he made an illegal U-turn, and led police on what they characterize as a mile-and-a-half chase until he finally stopped in Watervliet. They say that at first he refused to take a breath test but then agreed, registering 0.15, well above the 0.08 threshold for DWI. However, police say he disclosed that he had rinsed his mouth with mouthwash, which could throw off the results. A subsequent chemical breath test resulted in a .07 reading, still enough for an impaired driving charge.

Judge Maney's guilty plea this week comes with $560 in fines and surcharges, enrollment in a drinking-and-driving program and a requirement to attend a victim-impact panel on a night in Guilderland. It leaves us, however, without the judge's side of the story and many questions about whether he showed a disregard for more than the state's drunk driving laws in apparently trying to evade a checkpoint and not stopping right away when police pursued him. And why the mouthwash?

Now this lapse goes to the Commission on Judicial Conduct. Its proceedings normally are secret unless the judge asks that they be open. The commission issues a public report only if its review results in disciplinary action.

Judge Maney, who was eying a state Supreme Court race this year and otherwise has two years left on the Family Court bench, owes it to the citizens he serves and judges to publicly explain his behavior that night. All we have so far is a statement from his attorney that he apologizes, and "is confident that the humble lessons he has learned from this mistake and the lessons he will continue to learn will make him a better person and justice." We wonder if in Judge Maney's court, the measured words of an attorney are enough to convince him of a person's humility, remorse and sincerity.

Judge Maney's career — 18 years as a Family Court judge, a lawyer for the city of Albany under two mayors, and a former president of the state Bar Association — suggests a commitment to public service and his profession. Surely he understands that those who reach respected positions come to represent the institutions themselves. His integrity speaks to the integrity of the court.